To hate living in Manchester (and North in general)

[ILikeMilk]

Moved here four years ago to be with DH, and I still cannot get used to it. We are in a nicest area of Manchester, and it is still feels very provincial and boring. I dream about living in London, but DH does not want to look for a new job. I feel like there is no point and don?t want to decorate the house, make friends, etc, I just fantasise about being in London every single day. There is not much to do here, no nice streets or galleries, not much to do on the weekends as a family. I went to London this weekend, it was so painful to come back. Does anybody else feel this way?

Your thread made me laugh as somebody said "try living in the Midlands"I experienced similar to you in ...... Nottingham. Dp used to take me to Manchester to cheer me up!!!!!!!! Have to say I loved it(particularly Harvey Nicks) and at least the people are friendly.

We moved from a beautiful part of the SouthWest to Nottingshite and I seriously have never been so miserable my entire life. When we came back from visiting home I used to start howling as we went past that masssive power station. Like you I used to dream of home(trees,hills,the sea,the moors in my case) constantly. We did our stint and got the hell out. Sorry but you need to be frank with your dh otherwise it will get you down. If he loves you he's got to realise that staying may not be a viable option.

Could you put a time frame on it as a compromise. You could say lets seriously aim to be gone by 2 years and focus on getting the house ready for selling. Break the 2 years up with holiday and home visit plans plotted on a calendar. I always find a plan gets you through most shitty times.

Ok, you are 'stuck' so stop feeling sorry for yourself and try and improve the situation. Honestly!

And fwiw I grew up down south and infinitely preferred Manchester.

Once you've lived in London everywhere else does seem a little bit backward.

A year will fly by..and you have a timescale now!

People can be defensive when they think you're criticising their territory but they're not the ones living somewhere that they can't stand. And it could be anywhere on Earth - Really anywhere.

Get looking on Rightmove and start dreaming.

Thank you Mila! I literally had a big cry on the train and then on the station, people stopped to look what happen, lol. I dont care anymore.

OP only responds to the posters who thumbs up her wallowing

The Carrie Bradshaw comparison of herself was both a high and low point of this thread.

Thank you for your narrative bupcake. :) Just for the record, I did not compare myself to Carrie, just thought if Stockport that great they should have shot Sex and the Sity over there, not in NY... could be funny.

Sex and the City grr
sorry for the typos

yeah, but BCAC..she is allowed to dislike where she lives. There is no written rule saying you have to like everything about the North, Amen. We are all different people.

But you don't live in Stockport, no more than you lived in Hackney when you lived in London.

You are a "Glass is half empty" type, aren't you?

Just a lucky guess

There is no rule she has to like it but I would say there is an unwritten rule that she shouldn 't whine on and on about it on an advice forum, totally discount advice given and blee blee blee on and on about how tough it is living in a very affluent suburb with lots of stuff to do if only she would take her head out of her arse to look.

I just mention Stockport because it was the lowest point of the journey. We had to change trains there.

That is true Mango, but as Op has to live here for another year at least (and hasn't made any attempt to make it her home in any case, by her own admission), wouldn't it be better for Op to take a postive approach and try and find good things about her environment?
Instead of wallowing like a overdramatic teen?

Did you not go to rough/less salubrious areas of London? There are loads of them!
Stop being so bloody negative!!!

You changed trains there, noone mugged you, you don't have to live there and you don't even have to visit the Hat museum if you don't want to

Wait, so there is a law that people with phd cant enjoy SATC? DH got a high flying job in finance, 2 degrees and still loves watching it. Or do I have to watch documentaries and black and white movies because I was bored and started a phd to pass the time?

oh god milk, I'm in Stockport waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yeah but does your DH compare himself to Carrie Bradshaw? Or is he more of a Miranda?

Bupcake, he says he is more of a Charlotte.

Bupcake unless you've experienced it you have no idea how dreadful severe homesickness is. It's like you're walking round in a bubble,you can't connect,it's truely awful.

I moved my entire childhood(forces) so experienced it a lot as a child but my Nottingham experience was the worst.After talking to my mother I discovered she experienced the same feelings when posted to Scotland(a posting I loved ironically).

It's a very strange feeling and awful,like a constant black cloud not depression just this feeling of being totally separate and constantly looking to the future not living in the present-horrible.

Ilikemilk-a year will fly buy. Sit down tonight and form a firm plan with dp with what you need to do each month towards the move. If you're actively working towards it you'll feel a lot better. My dp was job hunting back down south so we had nothing to focus on. The minute we had a date and a focus and I was actively working towards leaving everything seemed brighter.

ILike Milk just wants out.

Now't wrong with that. We all want to be happy. You'd all be moving if you didn't like where you lived, eh?! (But it's so fabulouso you won't be, I guess).

I love magichomes

get me some of that fried chicken. FWIW residential
areas of London are grotty unless you can afford Hampstead or the like.

Isn't the version of 'Sex and the City' shot in Manchester actually 'Queer as Folk'?

As opposed to 'Stockport, so good they named it once', the radio comedy?

I'm happily imagining Carrie Bradshaw and friends looking gorgeous and dropping into the Battered Cod, after a day at the Hat Factory.